A communications expert at MacEwan University believes the strategy was to circumvent the lens of critical journalism – but ultimately, a bad public relations move.
"He should have come out right away and just announced that he was going to do what he wound up doing anyways," Ian MacPherson told CTV News Edmonton.
"He would have done himself a great service."
A political scientist at Mount Royal University agrees.
"The fact that the premier is avoiding questions from the media on a continuing basis is, I think, a problem," Lori Williams commented.
She and a peer at the University of Alberta say the premier needs to answer questions from journalists on his travelling MLAs and the sanctions against them.